We have located links that may give you full text access.
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
A Missense Variant at the Nrxn3 Locus Enhances Empathy Fear in the Mouse.
Neuron 2018 May 3
Empathy is crucial for our emotional experience and social interactions, and its abnormalities manifest in various psychiatric disorders. Observational fear is a useful behavioral paradigm for assessing affective empathy in rodents. However, specific genes that regulate observational fear remain unknown. Here we showed that 129S1/SvImJ mice carrying a unique missense variant in neurexin 3 (Nrxn3) exhibited a profound and selective enhancement in observational fear. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, the arginine-to-tryptophan (R498W) change in Nrxn3 was confirmed to be the causative variant. Selective deletion of Nrxn3 in somatostatin-expressing (SST+) interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) markedly increased observational fear and impaired inhibitory synaptic transmission from SST+ neurons. Concordantly, optogenetic manipulation revealed that SST+ neurons in the ACC bidirectionally controlled the degree of socially transmitted fear. Together, these results provide insights into the genetic basis of behavioral variability and the neurophysiological mechanism controlling empathy in mammalian brains.
Full text links
Related Resources
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app
All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.
By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Your Privacy Choices
You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app